Maylin Post #4

Although Norwegian Wood and A Wild Sheep Chase had similar themes, I ended up liking Norwegian Wood more even though I disliked some of the characters. I actually liked most of the characters from A Wild Sheep Chase, so I find it strange how I don't prefer this book instead.

 I found myself pitying the female characters more than the male characters even though everyone had their own struggles they were dealing with. Perhaps it was because I felt like Nagasawa and Watanabe were too indecisive with their relationships and were hurting the other party unnecessarily. Nagasawa was the character I hated the most, as he was mistreating and taking advantage of Hatsumi's kind personality. He tries to justify his decisions and that makes it worse. I feel like he was partially responsible for Hatsumi's decision to commit suicide and it annoyed me how he wrote how sad he was to Watanabe in a letter. I whole-heartedly agreed with Watanabe's decision to stop responding to Nagasawa.

 I did feel sympathetic to Watanabe, but I'm not entirely convinced he was in love with Naoko or Midori. While he was not in an official relationship with either in the book, his decision to sleep with other women while sorting out his feelings was a bad move in my opinion. Although Midori does come off as bossy, I can't really blame her for getting angry at Watanabe's insensitivity to her feelings. Also, while I do see the relevance of Watanabe sleeping with Reiko to tie loose-ends with Naoko, I had to wonder how Watanabe would explain this to Midori, who was waiting for him to sort out his feelings. I'm actually surprised Watanabe didn't sleep with Hatsumi. Murakami never wrote out an ending to Watanabe and Midori's potential relationship, but I think that's ok as it lets the readers decide what happens to them. As much as I dislike how indecisive Watanabe is, I hope he and Midori have a happy future together.